Anxiously he noted the speed. It did seem as if the cars were not going quite so fast now. “If they slow up a little more, I’ll risk it and jump,” said the boy. “I’ve got to get that suit case!” CHAPTER X A FRUITLESS SEARCH Holding fast to the edge of the door, to steady himself against the swaying of the car, which was now rumbling along over an uneven piece of track, Jack peered ahead to see if there was a station in view. “Yet perhaps this freight doesn’t stop at the regular stations,” he remarked. “I’m in a pretty mess, I am. Guess I’d better take lessons in traveling in side-door Pullmans. I need a keeper, I do. Why couldn’t I have left the case in the corner? Then the lurch of the car wouldn’t have toppled it out. Well, it’s easy enough to think that now, but that won’t bring it back. “That looks like a station just ahead there,” he went on. “And I certainly think the train’s slowing up. I believe I could almost jump now.” But a look at the ground directly below him showed that the car he was in was moving too rapidly to permit of a safe leap. Then came a perceptible slacking of the train’s speed. At the same time there was a long whistle from the engine. “That means put on brakes,” reasoned Jack, who knew a little about railroads. “I believe we’re going to stop. Oh, I see,” he added, a moment later. “That’s a water tank just ahead there, instead of a station. They’ve got to stop for water. I’m glad of that; I’d rather not get out near a station. Some one might want to arrest me, though I must be pretty well disguised with all the dirt I’ve gathered up from the floor of this car.” A little later the train came to a stop, and Jack leaped from the car and started back over the route he had come. He saw a little brook running along the railroad embankment. “Water!” he exclaimed. “Just what I need most in the world, next to my suit case. Whew! But I’m thirsty!” He found the water cool and good, and drank heartily. Then he washed his hands and face, and felt better. He brushed as much dirt as possible from his clothes, and then took to the track, intending to walk along it until he came to the river in which his valise had tumbled. “I might as well make my breakfast as I go along,” he reasoned, as he took from his pocket the last of his scanty supply of food. “Not very appetizing,” he added, as he saw how dry and stale the bread and meat was. Of the cake, none remained, but there was part of a very much crushed piece of pie. Still, Jack was hungry, and he wished he had more of the same kind of food. The railroad ran for some distance along a high embankment, across a low stretch of meadow, and then it turned, bordering a country highway. Jack decided it would be easier walking on the road than along the ties, so he crossed over. “It can’t be more than a couple of miles back,” he said to himself. “My things will be pretty well soaked, but I guess I can dry them out.”